buell



(No Model.)

0.3.BUELL. INDIVIDUAL SIGNALING APPARATUS FOR TELEPHONE SYSTEMS. No. 258,626. Patented May 30, 1882.

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5m WITNESSES? INVENTUF! UNrre States PATENT Crates.

CHARLES E. BUELL, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE UNITED STATES TELEPHONE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

INDIVIDUAL SIGNALING APPARATUS FOR TELEPHONE SYSTEMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 258,626, dated May 30, 1882.

Application filed July 6, [881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Units. E. BUELL, acitizen of the United States, residing at New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Individual Signaling Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of individual signaling apparatus in which step-bystep mechanism is set in position by currents of one kind or strength, so as to allow a signal to be given, and the bell is sounded or the signal given by means of a current of another I5 kind or strength.

The object of my invention is to simplify the devices heretofore used for this purpose, and to dispense with the employment of shunting or circuit-closing devices with the step-by-step 2o mechanism for putting the apparatus in operative electrical condition.

My invention consists in making the hell-hammer and the bell movable with relation to one another by means of the step-by-step mechanism, and in so arranging them that the bell will be in position to be struck by the hammer only in a particular condition of the step-bystep mechanism.

1n carrying out my invention I make either o the bell-hammer and its armature or the bell stationary, and I mount the bell or the hammer upon the step-by-step mechanism, so that a movement will be imparted to it as the stepby-step devices revolve, and it will be carried 5 into and out of position when the bell-hammer will strike the hell it operated.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a telephone or telegraph line having three stations provided with my devices, and

shows also the eentral-office apparatus... Fig. 2 is a side view of the bell-ringing apparatus, showing the bell-hammer mounted upon the escapement-wheel of the step-by-step devices. Fig. 3 is a top view of the escapement and polarized electro -ma-gnetic receiver. Fig. 4.

shows the bell carried by the escapementwheel and the bell-hammer and armature stationary.

Referring to Fig. 2, A represents a polarized o electro-magnetic receiver of any preferred form, provided with a polarized armature, B, to which are attached the pallets of astep-bystep escapement-wheel, C. This escapementwheel and its pallets may be of any desired form, and may be impelled by clock-work; or the movements of the armature itself may be used for that purpose. Fig.3 shows a top I, view of a star-escapement that may be used I in the latter way.

Upon the escapement-wheel C is mounted in any suitable manner the bell-hammer lever D, provided with a retractile spring and a neutral armature, as sl1own,the latter adapted to be attracted by the magnet A and drawn down, so that the hammer will strike the bell E, which is stationary. The lever plays between suitable stops, also mounted upon the wheel C. When the wheel is rotated by the polarized armature-lever B the bcllhammer describesa circle, at one portion only of which can it be made to strike the bell. At that portion it may be made to strike by the action of a current of either polarity, but of greater strength than that'used in rotating the wheel.

The operation of the devices upon aline will be understood from Fig. 1. At the various stations upon the linethe bell-hammers occupy different positions with relation to the bell, so that no two of them can simultaneously be in So posit-ion where the bell may be struck. When any particular station is to be called or signaled the escapement-wheels and their at taehed bell-hammers are simultaneously revolved by the action of reversed electrical impulses upon theelectro-magnets A until the bellhammer at the desired station is brought into position over its bell. A current of sufficient strength to cause the electro-magnet to draw down the armature-lever Dand strike the bell is then thrown to line. At other stations the bell-hammers will not be in position to be at tractcd, or, if attracted, will be so situated that they cannot strike their bells.

In Fig. 4 the armatnre-leverD is stationary 5 and the bell E is mounted upon the escapement-wheel and is moved into and out of position to be struck by the hammer. The operation of these devices upon aline is substantially the same asin Fig. 1.

Each station upon the line is shown as provided with a circuit-breaking key and with a spring gravity-switch for short-circuiting a telephone and for throwing it into circuit.

At the central office the devices for producing the desired changes in the polarity and tension of the current consist of a toothed wheel, N, which is turned by a crank-handle, and which vibrates a lever, G, so as to make and break the short circuit of a battery, a, and of a key, k which increases the tension of the current by short-circuiting the resistance It. Batteries :0 and y are )lZtCGd with the same pole opposed to one anot er, and a: is of approximately twice the number of cells of y. When y is short-circuited w sends, for instance, a positive current to line. \Vhen the short circuit ofy is broken by the dropping of lever G battery m overcomes battery 3 and sends a current to line of the opposite polarity and of the same strength.

At the top of each line-strip 4 of the switchboardisa switch-lever, It, connected to line, and capable of being turned to connect the line either to one of a series of buttons, which are shown as connected through a wire, 10, to main line or charging-battery M B and to earth, or to one of a similar series of buttons connected to a wire which leads to a key, K and to the signaling apparatus through a switch, S, or directly through said switch to the same apparatus.

At the bottom of each linestrip is a. switch lever adapted to connect said strip to a series of buttons connected through wire 12 to the telephone apparatus M, whose other terminal is connected with switch g, through which a connection may be made with ground or with the terminal button of a series, with any one of which the lower series of switches may be .thrown into contact. By these means any line may be connected directly with the telephone apparatus at the central station and to earth, or any two lines may be connected together through said apparatus. Similar telephone apparatus, M, may be interposed between any two lines by means of the two upper longitudinal series of connecting buttons and wires, 88.

The terminals 9 9 are trunk-line connections, to which any subscribers line may be connected by throwing the appropriate switch of the longitudinal series to which 9 is connected. M and M are provided with the usual gravityswitches and local batteries, as shown.

The horizontal series of buttons 9 may be used for connecting twolines directly with one another without passing through the telephone apparatus.

I Signals are given to the central oflice in the usual way, either by a circuit-breaking key, which breaks the circuit of the main battery M B, to which every line should be normally connected by its appropriate switch-lever, or by increasing the resistance in the line, or by diminishing it. In the present case the keys at the subscribers stations transmit a signal by breaking the circuit. Normally the bellhammers at the various stations are in difi'erent positions with relation to the bells. By operating the pole-changing device N the attendant transmits a series of reversedimpulses, which rotate the escapement-wheels at the various stations. \Vhen the bell-hammer at the station to be called has been thus rotated to position it is made to strike the hell by the current of increased strength transmitted by operating-key K and cuttin g-out resistance It".

It is obviously within the scope of my invention to operate the neutral armature by a second electro-magnetinstead offrom the poles of the polarized electro-magnet.

I may also produce the required movements of the escapement mechanism and the bellhammer by currents differing in other respects than in polarity and tension, and it would be obviously within the scope of the invention to operate the escapement by make and break of a weaker current than that used for ringing the bell. Other changes in the character of the currents will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

I do not claim in this application the devices shown at the central oflice, as they form the subject of another application filed by me April 4, 1881, No. 29,884. Other polarity and tension changers may obviously be employed instead of those here shown.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. The combination, substantially as described, of a bell-hammer and a bell, movable with relation to one another into andoutot' position where the bell-hammer, when operated, will strike the bell, mechanism controlled by an eleetro-magnet adjusted to be operated by currents of one kind or strength for producingthe desired relative movement, and devices adapted to be operated by an electro-magnet and currents of another kind or strength for causing the bell-hammer to strike the bell.

2. The combination, substantially as described, of a bell-hammer and a bell, movable with relation to one another into and out of position where the bell maybe struck,devices controlled by a polarized electro-magnet adapted to be operated by reversals of current for producing the desired relative movement, and a neutral armature carried by or attached to the bell-hammer for causing the hammer to strike the bell, and adapted to be operated by a current of either polarity, but differing in strength from the reversed currents.

3. The combination, substantially as described, of step-by-step mechanism controlled by a polarized electromagnetic receiving-instrument, a bell-hammer lever operated by said step-by-stcp mechanism and carried into and out of position where it may strike a bell, an arm aturc attached to or carried by the bellhammer, and a retractor for said bell-hammer lever and armature, adjusted above the tension of the currents used for controlling the step-by-step mechanism.

4. The combination, substantially as described, of an clectro-magnet provided with IIO a polarized and a neutral armature, step-bystep mechanism controlled by the polarized armature, and carrying a bell-hammer lever to which is attached the neutral armature, and a stationary bell arranged to be struck by the hammer when the latter is operated at the proper point in its movement with relation thereto.

5. The combination, upon the same main line, of a series of polarized electromagnetic receiving-instrunuents each provided with a supplemental neutral armature-lever carrying a bell-hammer, a stationary bell arranged to he struck by the hammer when it is inposition for that purpose, and step-by-step mechanisms controlled by reversals of current and carrying the bell-hammer, but arranged .to place the bell-hammer at the various stations into position where they may strike the bell at a time different for the various mechanisms.

CHARLES E. BUELL. Witnesses:

EMMA M. GILLETT, WATSON J. NEWTON. 

